Virgin Blue Experience

[AaronBradford]

God I love these two

Air transport is just a glorified bus operation.

— Michael O'Leary, Ryanair CEO, quoted in BusinessWeek Online, 12 September 2002
​

The unions need to be taken on. British Airways is massively over-staffed and has got to get its costs down. . . . The problem for [chief executive] Willie Walsh is that the board of BA has no spine, no balls and no vision.
— Michael O’Leary, Ryanair CEO, The Telegraph newspaper, 24 February 2010.
I know a lot of FF hate him, but I think he is a legend! I am booked on a flight from LHR - DUB in April when I go home for $0 + taxes.... You don't get that in Australia! Thanks Mick!

He's a great businessman but the aviation enthusiast in me wants to scream at him sometimes.

 

[dajop]

United/ American etc all charge for bags and food on short haul - would you consider them LCC's too?

Wrong. American certainly do not charge for food on short haul. They just don't supply food at all (not counting tiny bags of pretzels) . 4 hours ORD-LAX, food for purchase? Nothing.

Other than that I agree with you, the legacy carriers in the US now charge for luggage (like DJ - they charge unless you have status with them or are purchasing the more expensive fares), they have food for purchase (or not available at all - for purchase or otherwise - on shorter or non meal time flights). In economy, I'd take DJ - or even JQ - any day over AA, UA, US or DL on similar length domestic flights.

 

[JohnK]

If you book well in advance and pay attention to the happy hour fares you can save quite a bit.

Take my word for it when I say that you will not find happy hour airfares at peak travel times. Non on SYD-BNE anyway. Most happy hour airfares are for Tue-Thu and Saturdays only.

Also, it's not only just the three early flights that have that special. I have seen flights throughout the day for $55, including evenings. However, I guess they get snapped up pretty quickly and it's not always available.

I can only comment on my experience. Commuting SYD-BNE on Sunday night and Friday evening you will find QF cheapest on 46 weeks of the year.

Not interested on what happens on the once a week WOOP-WOOP services.

And if DJ is a little bit more, personally I don't mind paying to get away from the stale QF staff.

Your money, your choice.

I recently booked my only DJ flights for the year so far a BNE-SYD return at Easter. The difference for some reason this time was ~$57 (not usually this much difference) and if you then include luggage the difference is now only ~$37. Normally I would not even bother booking DJ with such a small difference but I have Platinum status already in the bag and may as well boost my Velocity points balance so it can gather more dust.

Still in the back of my mind I know I will be having issues as I will have a lot of luggage and golf clubs as I am coming back from BKK-SIN-BNE 2 weeks before and not returning to SYD. Usually on QF I am allowed 35kgs checked luggage and ~7kgs carry-on + laptop bag. Not sure what I carry-on for DJ but I can have 28kgs check luggage with golf clubs which means I will have to leave some luggage in BNE and bring it back to SYD in May.

It is not all just about stale staff. It is to do with all the trimmings one can get. And I still find the DJ cabin crew childish most of the time which does not give me great confidence.

 

[DJ737]

I am booked on a flight from LHR - DUB in April when I go home for $0 + taxes.... You don't get that in Australia! Thanks Mick!

Ryanair woundn't go anywhere near Heathrow except in an emergency situation and then the crew would probably need O'Leary's OK.

I play Ryanair at their own game and by thier rules.

ie nothing fare + taxes, no bags, don't buy anything onboard and I look for fares with free online check-in and there are even some with no taxes.

Ryanair don't make anything out of me.

 

[The Rok]

Ryanair don't make anything out of me.

Then you should be VERY happy with them....

 

[markis10]

Take my word for it when I say that you will not find happy hour airfares at peak travel times. Non on SYD-BNE anyway. Most happy hour airfares are for Tue-Thu and Saturdays only.

Thats not true at all, in fact at the time you were posting DJ had $55 happy hour on for SYD-BNE until Mar 17, shock horror, Monday AM flights available every Monday I checked and coming back on Friday nights as well!

 

[ANstar]

Wrong. American certainly do not charge for food on short haul. They just don't supply food at all (not counting tiny bags of pretzels) . 4 hours ORD-LAX, food for purchase? Nothing..

yes they do.

North America And Caribbean Meal Service

AA also charge for bags on economy fares unless you have status (like DJ)

American Airlines Baggage Allowance On AA.com

 

[dajop]

yes they do.

North America And Caribbean Meal Service

You missed my smiley.

But it does depend on what you define as short haul. Anything less than three hours and there won't be any food available for purchase (there may be a free mini snack such as two or three tiny pretzels). For those used to the DJ, TT, JQ approach where (subject to not being sold out) you can purchase a sandwich, wrap, chocolate bar packet of chips on just about any length of flight, this seems subpar.

Of course you are right for longer short haul flights (>3hrs) there is food available for sale, in theory, but in my most recent experience - a 4pm ORD-LAX flight (4hrs) there was no food for sale. No food at all really.

 

[JohnK]

Thats not true at all, in fact at the time you were posting DJ had $55 happy hour on for SYD-BNE until Mar 17, shock horror, Monday AM flights available every Monday I checked and coming back on Friday nights as well!

And fantastic for anyone that wants to wait this late for a chance of DJ Happy Hour popping up to book their regular commuting flights.

By the way there is no way I am travelling to BNE on a Monday morning and then put in an 8 hour day as well at work. I can see why some people want to travel on a Monday morning though.

The last QF airfare increase has worried me slightly so I will not have to book July-August-September flights this week which is a little early for me. Should I check DJ as well if they can beat the advertised $75 special with QF including checked luggage?

 

[markis10]

And fantastic for anyone that wants to wait this late for a chance of DJ Happy Hour popping up to book their regular commuting flights.

By the way there is no way I am travelling to BNE on a Monday morning and then put in an 8 hour day as well at work.

Your personal preferences aside its proof that what you said happens is in fact wrong, happy hour deals are available any day of the week peak and off peak, if you have a look at the Jan happy hour thread you will also see it's for dates close and far away, they can come in handy if you keep an eye out for them. No matter what day you fly, as you can see by the screenshot, they were available.

 

[JohnK]

Your personal preferences aside its proof that what you said happens is in fact wrong, happy hour deals are available any day of the week peak and off peak,

Sure markis10. You have proven that my statement is totally wrong.

Now what was my statement? "Oh and when they do have a $55 special the 3 early flights Friday morning BNE-SYD are the only ones with the special. So I should take a sick day/annual leave day to save $20. "

What is posted above is exactly my experience to date. Not plucking things out of thin air. So far I have not been able to find a single DJ Happy Hour special to suit my desired travel dates and travel times. Note the emphasis is on my desired travel dates and travel times.

No matter what day you fly, as you can see by the screenshot, they were available.

Sure they were available every day but which flights are they available on each day?

 

[peakhour]

Hi All

Back on topic as the "which airline is cheaper" argument has already appeared in about 15 other threads with the same examples...

As an "ecomomy" business traveller I find particular things to be important to me, whilst others I could hardly care less about. One of those is price, if someone else is paying

Although, as per my username I do the opposite of JohnK and fly peak hour BNE-SYD and the majority of the time VB is cheaper (admittedly without doing a PHD style of analysis).

So I'm interested to hear what things are most important to you all (apart from price)?

For me in no particular order:

- Ability to arrive last minute and still make the flight, checked in already or not.
- Seat location and speed of disembarking. Unlike JohnK I travel in the morning with only carry on luggage and want to get to that taxi queue ASAP so with VB sometimes I choose to sit at the :shock:back:shock:
- Ease of check in and changing flights, VB online system is great esp. for changes as I do this regularly halfway through a day when things are not going to plan.
- FF points

The above are my must haves. For me, anything else like Lounge access, business class domestic travel, priority bag tags, hot meal on the flight, is secondary - great if you get it but unimportant if you don't.

I like going into the Lounge or QC on the rare occasion I'm actually at the airport more than half an hour before the plane takes off but frankly anyone who travels frequently and spends more than the absolute minimum amount of time at any airport is crazy.

Each to their own of course

 

[andyj]

Sure markis10. You have proven that my statement is totally wrong.

Now what was my statement? "Oh and when they do have a $55 special the 3 early flights Friday morning BNE-SYD are the only ones with the special. So I should take a sick day/annual leave day to save $20. "

What is posted above is exactly my experience to date. Not plucking things out of thin air. So far I have not been able to find a single DJ Happy Hour special to suit my desired travel dates and travel times. Note the emphasis is on my desired travel dates and travel times.


Sure they were available every day but which flights are they available on each day?

I think the statement markis10 was referring to was:

Take my word for it when I say that you will not find happy hour airfares at peak travel times. Non on SYD-BNE anyway. Most happy hour airfares are for Tue-Thu and Saturdays only.

markis10 then proceeded to show clearly happy hour fares that are available at peak travel times for SYD-BNE. While that may not be useful for YOUR circumstances, there may be others that it will be useful for who will appreciate knowing that such fares are in fact available at peak times.

You are obviously entitled to make travel arrangement that suit your personal requirements and no-one is forcing you to consider DJ.

 

[Must...Fly!]

- The seats. Lets face it, economy travel is a reality for business travellers. Cost pressure and the like. I'm 6'4", and the VB seat seems a lot more comfy than the QF one. Whatever you do, don't change em.

Firstly, welcome to AFF!

Secondly, I'm the opposite to you in fact. I am 6'5", and I find QF seats to be the most comfy, followed by JQ then DJ last of all.

 

[bjm76]

I am 6'4" and I find the QF seats the most comfortable too.
Its always pot luck with DJ if you are lucky enough to get a plane with the movable head-rests... on the planes where they are fixed my shoulders are way above the top of the seat anyway.. the QF seats seem to be a better fit for me.

 

[JohnK]

Although, as per my username I do the opposite of JohnK and fly peak hour BNE-SYD and the majority of the time VB is cheaper (admittedly without doing a PHD style of analysis).

Are you saying that I am wasting my time doing a PhD style of analysis?

And the latest DJ BNE-SYD specials are likely to suit you right down to the ground! Absolutely useless to me though. Actually looking at airfares again BNE-SYD on a Sunday and SYD-BNE on a Friday is not good either.

I looked at most weekends from Fri 29 July 2011 through to mid-September 2011 and flying BNE-SYD on a Friday the $55 special ends at 11:00am and then the cheapest flight is $99 and coming back on Sunday SYD-BNE the $55 special ends at 9:00am with 2 flights available at $85 and most flights $99+.

Luckily for me QF is there with their $75 specials for July-September available on most flights because if I had to rely on DJ I would be in financial trouble. Or should I not book now and wait (and hope and pray) for a DJ happy hour sale (sometime in the next 5 months) that may cover my dates and desired times?

Sorry if I bore and tire people with some of these posts. DJ is not always cheaper than QF and my experience is testimony to that fact.

So I will continue with my PhD style analysis tonight and book my flights through to mid-September and lock in the QF $75 special SYD-BNE and vv with all the trimmings included....

 

[straitman]

Sorry if I bore and tire people with some of these posts. DJ is not always cheaper than QF and my experience is testimony to that fact.

It's not boring to some of us JohnK.

The facts, that some do not want to admit to, are that sometimes QF is cheaper and sometimes DJ is cheaper and there are a lot of variable that cause that difference on any given occasion.

 

[UP4014]

Sorry if I bore and tire people with some of these posts. DJ is not always cheaper than QF and my experience is testimony to that fact.

Totally agree, I just looked at some flights for Ms BAM1748 and Little Princess BAM1748 for Easter Syd to Melb and back. By the time I include luggage DJ is $4 more expensive per sector than QF and there isn't any food or drinks. (of course I'll be going by train at least part way :mrgreen

Matt

 

[pauly7]

Sorry if I bore and tire people with some of these posts. DJ is not always cheaper than QF and my experience is testimony to that fact.

.

John you aren't, some people just can't handle some home truths

 

[peakhour]

Are you saying that I am wasting my time doing a PhD style of analysis?

And the latest DJ BNE-SYD specials are likely to suit you right down to the ground! Absolutely useless to me though. Actually looking at airfares again BNE-SYD on a Sunday and SYD-BNE on a Friday is not good either.

Sorry if I bore and tire people with some of these posts. DJ is not always cheaper than QF and my experience is testimony to that fact.

No you are not wasting your time doing a PhD style analysis as price is important to you (and me when I'm personally flying!).

My point was that I started this thread to discuss my likes/dislikes with flying VB for business recently, and following on from that, what of those things is important to us as frequent flyers *apart from price*.

No problem you making the comparison, which is quite interesting, and in fact you are correct that in many cases QF is cheaper/better/more suitable - but I wanted this thread to be about the other things that influence choice of airline that's all.